Bill Gates talks energy at TED

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Bill Gates has drastically changed his role since leaving Microsoft and now focuses on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To that end, he recently gave a talk at the TED conference. Not about technology, but about energy use around the world.

His focus is on the fact we need to get CO2 production to zero and to do so we need “energy miracles”. These aren’t impossible new ways of producing energy, just improvements and leaps made with some of the techniques already out there, or currently being thought about. These include:

Carbon capture and storage

Nuclear

Wind

Solar Photovoltaic

Solar Thermal

With each there are major challenges, but we need to overcome them in order to continue enjoying energy with growing populations and rising temperatures. Gates discusses a new type of nuclear reactor called Terrapower. It sounds like the ultimate energy solution and would create energy from the waste currently produced from nuclear power without all the risks.

The talk is 27 minutes long and well worth watching if you can spare the time.